AILA Agrees with President Obama: "It’s Time for Immigration Reform"

WASHINGTON, DC — The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) applauds the renewed commitment to real immigration reform exemplified by President Obama in his State of the Union address January 28, 2014. During his speech he focused on many topics, including economic equality, climate change, manufacturing jobs, and education but on immigration he was focused and concise, tying fixing our broken immigration system to economic growth.

The President noted that the issue of immigration reform had brought together disparate groups, "business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement" united for a common purpose to benefit our country. He highlighted the bipartisan work the Senate did by passing legislation in June and emphasized that it remains a bipartisan issue and "that members of both parties in the House want to do the same."

One primary reason he gave for immigration reform is the economic analyses that say it "will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades," as the CBO report on the impact of the Senate bill clearly showed. He urged Congress to move forward now and AILA and its members echo that call.

"We've actually come a long way on immigration reform since President Obama's last State of the Union but we haven't gone far enough," said Doug Stump, AILA President. He continued, "The Senate passed a bipartisan bill but that's where the progress really stalled. The House needs to move on immigration reform or we won't get a system that functions for our country. Why is this so hard? I'm a Republican, I see the need for real reform, and I'm positive it can be done. However, if the House leadership continues to drag its heels, we ask that the President take immediate action to reform its deportation practices and reverse the harm done to families, businesses, and communities by aggressive and unnecessary enforcement. Keep those families intact, keep those businesses running until we see real reform happen, hopefully this year," he concluded.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.